Electric Sound Products, known as ESP, began in Tokyo Japan in 1975 as a company that provided custom substitute pieces for guitars. Conversely, the first ESP guitar wasn't constructed until 1976. ESP Guitars and replacement parts continued to be sold exclusively in Japan for nearly ten years prior to moving into the United States marketplace. In 1983 their replacement accessories were made accessible in the United States. At last, in 1984 their electric guitars made their American arrival.
In 1984 - 1985 ESP Guitars were getting some attention from great musicians including Bruce Kulick (Kiss), Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones) and Vernon Reid (Living Colour).
The next big musician to come across ESP Guitars was George Lynch of Dokken, while shopping for electric guitar parts when he was doing a tour in Japan. When George discovered that ESP crafted custom guitars, the prototype "Kamikaze" was crafted for him. The Kamikaze was the original signature model to be made.
Soon after, other artists started to take notice of ESP and started playing their electric guitars in the late 80's. Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield of Metallica were two of the bigger names.
In fact, talking about James Hetfield, an ESP electric guitar which he used during Metallica first began to turn into popular, got the ESP Corporation into some legal trouble. The electric guitar he played, called the EXP, was a reproduction of the Gibson Explorer. Regardless that guitar companies have been selling replicas of their guitars for many years, Gibson decided to sue ESP Guitars. The quality of the EXP guitar was so excellent that players were buying them up and this was apparently cutting into the sales of Gibson's guitars. Ultimately, ESP lost the proceedings and adjusted their design to the now recognized 'EX' design.
In mid 2002, ESP gross sales began to produce at a fast rate making them one of many quickest growing businesses at that time. This upsurge in sales was directly connected to Fender Guitars buying out Jackson Guitars. Jackson was the company that ESP Guitars had competed with back in the 80's and 1990's the buyout of Jackson Guitars, lots of the high profile players jumped ship and went over to ESP. Musicians like Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, found it an easy transition to move over to ESP Guitars due to the high quality and similar thrash-metal aggresive designs.
ESP guitars are still highly regarded today. At the 08 Winter NAMM show, ESP Guitars launched over 50 all-new guitar and bass models. Additionally they have a terrific number of big profile guitar players on their list including Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield of Metallica, Wayne Static of Static-X, Alexi Laiho Children of Bodom, Will Adler of Lamb of God, Ron Wood, George Lynch, and the latest member, Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi. With the nice high quality that ESP Guitars manufacture, its a no brainer to recognize they'll be around for several many more years to come.
Author Resource:
I am a huge fan of the ESP LTD guitars . Here's a great website for ESP LTD guitar reviews . Visit my personal site: Hardon4Guitars.com
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